Blue Rage?

Apparently student season ticket interest for Michigan basketball has been so low that the Athletic Department has opened up the Maize Rage bleachers in Crisler to non-students. For $199, you can be a member of the "Blue Rage," with seating in the bleachers and the overflow seating they hoped to fill with students in the lower bowl.

According to a commenter on UMHoops.com, student ticket sales were in the 300's... What's the deal? I mean, I know the team has been bad, but this is pretty deplorable interest even by Michigan basketball standards... They should have made student tickets free this season, as the rampant rumors indicated they were going to. Even if only for returning season ticket holders. I've personally paid for 4 years of shitty basketball, and am in for a 5th year of being in the piss-poor Maize Rage. It would have been nice to have been kicked some freebies for being loyal to the program.

Its absolutely ridiculous that the University of Michigan would charge $300+ to students to attend basketball games period. Nevermind that the team has been terrible.

I'm an alum of the University of Florida. I paid exactly $0 to go to games in all 4 of my years there. That included both National Championships. Know what?...We had one of the best student sections in the country, the Rowdy Reptiles and consequently one of the biggest home court advantages in the country. It makes no sense for the University to charge students for basketball games, especially if the team sucks. What it leads to is dwindling interest and the disengagement of the most important fans---the students.

I actually think the Maize Rage is really cool and has done a decent job providing a home court edge to our team given how crappy they've been the last 10 years. It looks pretty intimidating on TV and they get pretty loud for their size. I've always hoped that the Maize Rage would expand to include more rows vertically to create a bigger home court advantage. Charging an arm and a leg to students for tickets is asanine at this point in the programs' development.